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4/23/98: A secondhand-type rumor I’ve heard has the Braves dealing Kevin Millwood to the Indians for David Justice. I doubt that there’s anything to it, but if there is, it’s an awful move. The Braves don’t have another starter candidate ready to take Millwood’s place, and they have lots of outfielders. Maybe none is quite of Justice’s quality, but they aren’t far behind him.

4/21/98: Some people in The Media have been talking about Greg Maddux’s “poor” performance last night in Pitcher’s Hell — eight innings, five runs, four earned. That’s actually a good performance, it should be remembered. It should have been even better, because Lockhart (they really should bring in Graffanino for defense in the late innings) botched a double-play ball that not only led to the…

4/20/98: Dennis Martinez got blasted yesterday. I’m not willing to totally write a pitcher off on the basis of a Coors Field appearance, but he hasn’t really pitched well except maybe in his first start. He looks like he’s throwing pretty well, but he’s not very effective. On other pitching news, it’s been pointed out by Baseball Prospectus that removing one of Richmond’s rotation starters…

4/19/98: The Rockies and Braves are playing one of those godawful day/night doubleheaders, not a “doubleheader” in any real sense of the term, since they charge separate admission. Way to bring the fans back, boys. The worst part is that because of ESPN’s blackout rights (no games overlapping Sunday Night Baseball, which BTW ends up on ESPN2 later this year because of ESPN holding the…

4/17/98: Galarraga was OK, and played yesterday. The Braves actually had their favored lineup on the field, for probably the first time since opening day. Smoltz pitched well, but I thought his control was a little off. He threw 75 pitches, and I wouldn’t expect him to pitch many more for some time.

4/16/98: The injury plague continues, as Andres Galarraga was hit on the knee with a pitch yesterday; he is listed as day-to-day. Without him, the offense is hurt a little, but the outfield defense will be better with Klesko at first. The big news is the performance of the starting pitchers. Kevin Millwood have pitched back-to-back complete game shutouts of the Pirates. Millwood’s performance was…

4/14/98: Keith Lockhart is back in the lineup tonight, joining Weiss who got back over the weekend. It really does look like Lockhart will play as much as he is capable of against righthanded pitching for now. Meanwhile, Michael Tucker really looks like he’s hurting out there. The Braves should disable him, but for some reason haven’t yet. As long as he’s playing, it’s not…

4/11/98: Oops. Turns out it’s RAY Holbert, not Aaron (I believe that they’re brothers), who was called up by the Braves. That’ll teach me to believe the first thing I read. Ray was with the Padres system for many years, and actually got to the majors a couple of times. His basic flaw that has kept him from a major league job has been an…

4/10/98: Weiss finally got back in the lineup, but it was only because of a major disaster. (That was a joke.) Belliard tore a quadricep muscle and is out 6-8 weeks. The Braves are down to one fully healthy middle infielder, Graffanino. Aaron Holbert was called up to replace him. He’s 25, used to be in the Cardinal organization, and he’s a better hitter than…

4/7/98: Weiss was supposed to be back for tonight’s game, but wasn’t. It didn’t matter, as the Braves scored 11 runs and Belliard actually went 3-5. Meanwhile, Keith Lockhart, who had been playing a lot more than had been expected (basically platooning with Graffanino at second) has a torn rotator cuff in his left (non-throwing) arm and might need surgery. A week into the season…

If you let Teheran eat innings the first few months and stick with the plan to provide an extra day of rest whenever possible, you're less likely to end up in a position where you may need to limit the younger arms down the stretch